


All's fair

by Khalehla



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Awkward Boners, M/M, Soulmates, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-24 14:52:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12015078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalehla/pseuds/Khalehla
Summary: Mats and Marc-André were only having fun, they argue.Benedikt and Bernd argue the same thing.All's fair in love and war and misguided flirting, after all.





	All's fair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shlryn4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shlryn4/gifts).
  * Inspired by [I'll Cover You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8869024) by [eafay70](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70). 



> So I saw [this tumblr post](http://secondhandium.tumblr.com/post/163250542191/pre-season-things) and [ this one ](http://secondhandium.tumblr.com/post/165120687171/benedikt-h%C3%B6wedes-what-did-i-tell-you-about-never) and [ this one](http://secondhandium.tumblr.com/post/165148371661/mats-hummels-what-did-you-said-to-not-tellin-the) by [shlryn](archiveofourown.org/users/shlryn4) and I had this idea for a fun fic.
> 
> Set as a sequel to eafay70's fic [I'll Cover You](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8869024) (which is a sequel to my fic [ Cover me with your wings](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8726860/chapters/20004754)), which goes on the premise that your soulmate's wings are "physical" and can be touched. And yes, Mats and Benedikt are soulmates in this fic as well.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The first time, Mats blacks out. It’s so sudden and unexpected that he doesn’t even know it’s happening until he comes back to consciousness with his whole body buzzing like an electric current and his vision all blurry. When the buzzing finally stops, it’s not just Benedikt and Marc who are bending over him concerned, Thomas and Toni are as well.

“Are you back with us?” Benedikt asks, taking his hand.

“Yeah,” Mats says, shaking his head then wincing when it hurts.

Everyone is looking at him worriedly.

“Should I get a doctor?” Thomas asks.

“No, no, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Benedikt frowns at him.

“I’m good,” Mats insists, “I probably just stood up too quickly.

The next time it happens, Mats has about two seconds of warning when he gets hot from back of his neck, down to his groin area; then he loses track of time. Even though he’s - luckily - sitting down this time, he’s slumped into his chair and breathing hard.

“Mats! Mats!” Benedikt is hissing quietly behind him.

Mats turns around to blink blearily at Benedikt. “I’m okay,” he mouths, because he can already see the other defender about to go into mother-hen mode, and he didn’t want to attract attention to himself right now. They’re watching the U21s on the big screen, and even though it’s slightly dark and most of the people in the common room are chatting, the trainers and some of the medical team are right there; the last thing Mats wants is everyone questioning if he’s going to be okay to play this break.

Benedikt frowns, but doesn’t say anything else, not even when they get back to their rooms and Mats goes straight to bed, already exhausted.

They’re having lunch the day before the first friendly and Mats is so relieved that he’d managed to survive two days without another episode, so it’s naturally right then when he gets that strange sensation again. His vision wavers for a few seconds, and Mats is about to panic that he’s about to black out again, when he suddenly feels this strange wet heat on the inside of his thigh. He jerks in his seat and nearly head-butts the glass on the table, but he manages to cover it up by pretending to cough.

Benedikt, who’s got his arm slung over Mat’s chair and talking to Julian Draxler across the table, looks up at him with a question on his face.

Mats fake coughs some more, then takes a drink of his water. Thankfully, Benedikt must fall for it, because he goes back to talking to Julian. Mats lets out a quiet sigh of relief, and tries to concentrate on the conversation around him; which is admittedly a bit hard because he can still feel that strange wet heat pulsing against his thigh, and it’s all he can do to not pop an inappropriate boner right there at the lunch table.

Dinner however, is a total different problem and Mats is seriously thinking of doing the unthinkable and running into the bathroom and jerking off quickly, just so that he didn’t have to sit the entire night with a hard on. It didn’t help that Benedikt looked gorgeous in the navy suit that they’d been supplied with for the team dinner, because he was seriously having a hard time thinking of unsexy thoughts when Benedikt was sitting next to him looking good enough to eat and smelling deliciously like the coconut body wash he liked to use. Mats spends the first hour of dinner cycling between painfully aroused and absolutely mortified that somebody would figure out there was something wrong with him. At one time, it’d gotten so bad that he’d almost blacked out again, and only dropping his fork on the floor saved him from trying to come up with an excuse to explain why he was slumped down like he was.

By some miracle, the sensation finally stops just before dessert comes around, and Mats finally breathes again.

“I’m worried about you,” Benedikt says when they’re back at the hotel. “You’ve been acting strange all break.”

“I’m fine,” Mats mutters. “Was just feeling weird at dinner.”

“Mats, you’ve been acting weird the whole time we’ve been here. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Mats thinks about denying anything is wrong, but he actually is starting to worry now, so decides to tell Benedikt.

“So what, you had a boner the whole time we were at dinner?” Benedikt asks, amused. “What was at the restaurant that turned you on so much? Should I be worried?”

Mats groans. “You know it’s not like that. I didn’t plan it, it just happened!”

“But this isn’t the first time, you said?”

“No, and I don’t know what triggers it, either.”

Benedikt gives him a thoughtful look. “It doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, it’s inconvenient, yeah, but it’s not hurting you, right?”

Mats tries not to think about the first time he passed out, but Benedikt jumps to the conclusion anyway.

“Mats, that first time?”

“I don’t know if it’s related,” he admits. “It’s not exactly the same feeling.”

Benedikt pinches his lips together. “Okay fine. But make sure you tell me if it gets bad. I don’t care if you’re embarrassed about popping an awkward boner in front of Jogi, we’re telling a doctor if we need to.”

Mats groans; just the thought of his coach finding out that something was wrong with him is enough to make him lose whatever residual arousal he had from dinner.

“Hey, everything will be alright,” Benedikt says, hugging him close. Mats snuggles into him, letting himself believe.

It doesn’t stop, of course, although it’s a blessed two days before it happens again.

How Mats managed to survive the team meeting without anyone realising he was falling apart, he has no idea. He’d stuck close to Benedikt because if anything else happened to him, Benedikt was the only one he really trusted to get him safely out of the mess. Not that he didn’t trust his friends, but he’s so afraid of what would happen if Jogi found out how he was feeling and that he was sometimes blacking out, and yes his friends cared, but they’d also probably run off to one of the team doctor’s first, and Mats was trying to avoid that as much as possible. They only had three days left for break, and he only needed to survive the game against the Czech Republic, then he could go back to Munich and try to figure out what the hell was going on.

By the time they’re back to their rooms though, Mats doubts he’s even going to survive until end of break. The whole time they were doing the video analysis he’d been low-level turned on with a bit of nauseous thrown in for good measure. It was such a strange and and conflicting sensation that even sipping on the mineral water the entire time didn’t help to settle his stomach, and he was genuinely afraid now.

Mats pulls at his hair. “I don’t know what to do, Bene. I can’t keep going like this. If I can’t figure out what’s happening, I’m going to have to tell Jogi I can’t play. Then I have to go back to Bayern and tell them.” Mats clutches Benedikt’s hands desperately. “What happens if I keep blacking out and the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with me? I’ll never be able to play again!”

“Hey, you’re overreacting,” Benedikt says, pulling his hands apart and kissing his knuckles briefly. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“There is!” Mats insists in a panic. “You don’t know what it feels like. I don’t know whether I’m going to feel sick or horny or black out and oh my god Bene, I can’t play like this!”

“Mats!”

“I’m going to have to quit football!”

“Mats!”

“How am I supposed to tell Jogi? And Kalle? Holy shit, my family is going to be so disappointed!”

“Mats you need to stop,” Benedikt says firmly, holding his hands and making sure Mats isn’t pulling at his hair again. “Nothing is going to happen to you, okay? Everything is fine.”

“You don’t know that,” Mats whispers dejectedly.

“I do know,” Benedikt insists. “Because this is all my fault. I’m sorry baby.”

Mats squints at Benedikt. “What are you talking about?”

Benedikt inhales. “It was me. I was kinda making you, you know. Overwhelmed. I didn’t think you’d black out like that, though.”

"I have no idea how it could possibly be you," Mats says, confused.

"I'm sorry," Benedikt mumbles, kissing his knuckles again. "It got a bit out of hand, I guess. I just wanted to see how much I could do; I never meant to hurt you."

Mats is even more confused. "I don't understand. This is nothing to do with you. Well, that I know of?" he says tentatively, because it's only just now that he's noticing how guilty Benedikt looks. "Babe?"

"I'm sorry," Benedikt says again. "I'll stop now."

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

“Okay, I'll explain, but just promise me you won’t freak out.”

Mats gives the other defender a hard look. “Well, that’s actually the perfect thing to make me freak out - you do know that, right?”

Benedikt sigh and looks upwards. “Just relax Mats. This is will be easier if you relax.”

“Relax? _Relax?_ Relax about _what?_ ”

“Just relax, okay? Trust me.”

Mats swallows, then tries to do just that. He waits.

At first Mats doesn’t feel anything, but then he feels the strangest sensation, like someone running their fingertip on the inside of his stomach just under his naval. It's weird, but not like what he’d experienced before. It tickles.

It must show on his face because Benedikt almost smirks at him. “You like that?”

“Yeah,” Mats breathes unthinkingly, then, “Wait, you’re doing that?”

“I didn’t realise you were ticklish there,” Benedikt murmurs. “I wonder if…”

The stroking on the inside gets firmer, and Mats nearly jerks himself off the bed in surprise. “Bene!”

The stroking stops. “Sorry. Too much?”

“Jesus!” Mats presses his palms against his stomach. “How are you doing that?”

“Your wings.”

“Come again?”

“I’m projecting through your wings.”

Mats frowns at Benedikt. “I’m sorry, but did you just say that you’re projecting through my _wings?_ ”

"Yeah."

"You're tickling me. Through my wings? _How?_ "

“Yes. Look, I’ll show you.” Benedikt stands up, tugging at Mats so that they’re in the bathroom. “Look at the mirror.”

Mats frowns, but does as he’s told.

Benedikt raises his hand a couple of inches over Mats’ shoulder, then seems to hover it there. “This is where your wing is,” he murmurs, then very slowly and deliberately makes a circular motion, eyes locked onto Mats’ in the mirror.

Despite the fact that he should have figured it out by now, it takes Mats complete by surprise when he can feel the same circular stroking motion not just in the space above his shoulder where Benedikt said his wing was, but also somewhere in the general area of his lower back.

“Holy shit!” Mats gasps, unconsciously arching his back “into” Benedikt’s hand. It’s not quite the same as having a back rub, but he can actually feel it. “How did you find out about this?”

“Bernd told me,” Benedikt smiles, dropping his hand and pulling Mats out of the bathroom.

“Bernd?” Mats is still feeling a bit dazed and isn’t sure he heard that right.

“Yeah.”

Mats blinks. “Okay. But I don’t get it. Why would he show you? I mean, it’s not like it’s normal to just go up to someone and say “hey, so I know how to make your soulmate’s brain turn to mush if you want me to show you”. I know we’re progressive, but even that’s a bit too TMI for soulmate talk.”

Benedikt grins almost sheepishly. “Well, I was kinda annoyed at you and Marc, and he heard me grumbling and asked if I wanted to, well, get revenge I suppose.”

“Okay that explains _you_ \- and I told you me and Marc were just playing around! - but why would Bernd want to help you? He normally stays out of the drama in the team.”

“I guess he wanted to get his revenge as well,” Benedikt shrugs.

“Revenge? On what? Me?”

“Well, you did start it.”

“Start what?”

“The tweets. You started the tweeting first before Marc decided to go along for the fun.”

Mats is even more confused now. “So what? It wasn’t about him. Why would he care about that?”

Benedikt gives him the look that says _think about it really, really hard_.

Mats _is_ thinking about it, and he honestly can not think of any reason why Bernd Leno would care about Marc and Mats and their fake flirting tweets. It’s not like Mats tagged him or anything, so why would Bernd feel the need for revenge? Benedikt he could understand because Mats’d obviously gone a little bit too far and pissed off his soulmate but-

The train of thought comes to a screeching halt and Mats’ brain blanks out for a second. He gapes at Benedikt. “No way!”

Benedikt just smiles at him. “Yup.”

Mats gapes some more. “Really? What the _hell?_ _How_ the hell? Marc and Bernd? No way!”

“I was surprised too,” Benedikt laughs. “They hide it well, I guess? I mean, they spent so much time avoiding each other at first, how was anyone supposed to figure it out?”

“Oh my God,” Mats breathes, because he’s still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that the two rivals were actually soulmates. “Does anyone else know?”

“Not sure; Andy maybe. And probably young Brandt. Like you said, it’s really hard to imagine so no-one would really be suspicious.”

Mats shakes his head in wonder. “Honestly. Those two; what are the odds? And who’d’a thought that Bernd had a vindictive streak in him?”

“Hey, you should know by now that you don’t mess with soulmates.”

“Okay fine,” Mats rolls his eyes. “Painful lesson learnt. I’ll never do that again.”

Benedikt nods, then tips his head to the side. “You know, it’s not exactly about pain. It’s about sensation, and how to manage the feedback loop so that you don’t get overwhelmed. It can be fun, too.”

“Really?” Mats asks slowly, hoping against hope that the look on Benedikt’s face means they’re going to have a fun night in. “Tell me more.”

“Tell you? Why don’t I show you?”

Mats’ breath hitches and he can already feel the heat pooling low in his stomach.

A few extremely pleasurable hours later, Mats is sated and practically floating and nuzzling sleepily into Benedikt’s chest. _I’m gonna have to get Bernd a thank you present,_ he thinks, just before he drops off to sleep.

==

The next day Mats punches Marc-André in the shoulder. “Your boy is a menace.”

The Barcelona keeper looks confused. “What?”

“Your boy. Leno. Is a fucking menace.”

Marc blushes lightly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Mats huffs. “It was him all along. I’m assuming you know you can touch wings? Apparently your boy taught Bene.”

Marc’s eyes suddenly glaze over and he’s got a creepy smile on his face. Not that he needed it, but that was all the confirmation Mats needed.

“Oh Jesus, stop that!” Mats slaps the younger man on the back of his head, making Marc squawk. “I really don’t want to know kinky shit you guys get up to when you’re alone.”

“Then why did you bring it up?” Marc asks, both confused and slightly offended.

Mats huffs again. “I’m grateful okay, because holy shit, I didn’t know you could do that - but I didn’t really want to keep blacking out and popping boners all over the place like that, you know?”

“Yeah,” Marc agrees. The keeper has that faraway creepy look on his face again though, and Mats sighs.

“I think they did it as revenge.”

“Revenge? For what?”

“The tweets.”

Marc grimaces. “Oh yeah those. I got into so much trouble.”

“Same. Honestly, they were just jokes.”

“Apparently we took it a bit too far.”

“But we didn’t!” Mats protests. He pauses to think about it, then, “Okay maybe a little.”

“How annoyed is Bene?”

“Well, less now that he’s managed to trick me this whole time.”

Marc nods sympathetically. “Congratulations by the way; I had no idea. I mean, I knew you guys were close, but not _wings_ close.”

Mats can’t help but grin. It still blew his mind too, the crazy odds of meeting his soulmate while playing football. Speaking of which. “You too. Congratulations. Although, I admit, I really didn’t see that one coming.”

The Barcelona keeper beams at him. “To be fair, neither did I.”

“You’re happy, though?”

“Yeah,” Marc says slowly; the faraway look he gets this time is tinged in wonder, and Mats feels so happy for his teammate.

“He’s still a menace though,” Mats adds.

“But I wouldn’t have him any other way.”

Mats grins again, not even caring that he’s probably got the same dopey expression on his face that the Barcelona keeper does. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [tumblr account ](https://khalehla.tumblr.com) for my writings and random ficlets. If you have a question about this or any of my other stories, come say hi :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I write **fiction** about real people. As far as I know, none of these events ever happened; any resemblance to any actual events are purely coincidental.


End file.
